Anadarko up on settlement; Amazon falls as Fire fizzles

BenEisen

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Anadarko Petroleum Corp. soared on Thursday after the company said it settled a lawsuit on behalf of its subsidiary while Amazon.com Inc. was among the weakest stocks in the S&P 500 after unveiling a new multimedia set-top box.

Anadarko Petroleum
APC, -0.74%
shares jumped 15%. The oil exploration and production company agreed with plaintiffs in the Tronox Adversary Proceeding to pay $5.15 billion to settle all claims against Kerr-McGee, which Anadarko bought in 2006. A net tax benefit of about $550 million will be reflected in the company’s first-quarter financial statements.

Amazon.com
AMZN, -0.89%
fell 2.8%. On Wednesday, the Internet retailer released Fire TV, a set-top box that allows access to programs from Netflix, Hulu, ESPN as well as functions for photos, music and games. However, analysts were less than impressed, with Michael Pachter at Wedbush describing it as an “underwhelming” debut.

Gainers

Intuitive Surgical
ISRG, -0.62%
Inc. shares advanced 3.5%. The stock rose for an eighth session after it received clearance for its da Vinci Xi Surgical System from the Food and Drug Administration.

Kellogg Co.
K, -0.23%
shares rose for a second day to climb 3.7%. The stock is up about 6% so far this year.

Decliners

E-Trade Financial Corp.
ETFC, +0.15%
shares slid 6.7%. An analyst at Sterne Agee said in a note this week that E-Trade is not likely to beat estimates for first-quarter earnings. E-Trade is slated to release quarterly results on April 23. Analysts surveyed by FactSet are forecasting the online brokerage to report earnings of 22 cents a share.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.
VRTX, -0.14%
shed 5%, falling after three days of gains. The stock is down roughly 7% year to date.

First Solar Inc.
FSLR, +0.05%
shares declined 5.3%, among the worst laggards in the S&P 500. The stock is up 25% so far in 2014.

Facebook Inc.
FB, -1.44%
shares fell 5.1%, in line with a broad retreat in tech stocks. The stock rose 9% this year.

Adobe Systems Inc.
ADBE, -0.69%
shares dropped 4.8%. Adobe on Wednesday announced plans to update its video apps for Adobe Creative Cloud and new features for Adobe Anywhere. The new apps will be unveiled next week at NAB 2014 in Las Vegas.

Tickers to Watch

GOOGL: Google Inc. launched a stock split Wednesday, giving shareholders two stocks for every one they owned with the new shares to trade Thursday in two groups: Class A shares under “GOOGL”
GOOGL, +0.38%
and Class C shares under the traditional “GOOG”
GOOG, +0.48%
ticker. Both class of shares are fractionally weaker after earlier gains.

“We see a number of opportunities for value creation at Monsanto, including increasing balance sheet leverage and splitting the company into parts,” Zekauskas wrote in a note. “Monsanto has underperformed the market year to date by (3.6%) and it underperformed the market by (6%) in 2013.”

CACI: CACI International Inc.
CACI, -0.23%
dropped 4.2% after the government IT contractor cut its profit outlook for the year due to delays in awarding contracts. The firm said it now expects to earn between $5.12 and $5.51 a share, down from a range of $5.59 to $5.98 a share.

PERY: Perry Ellis International Inc.
PERY, +0.26%
shares gained 3.7% after adjusted earnings per share came in at 6 cents. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 3 cents a share on revenue of $216.1 million. The clothing company said it swung to a fourth-quarter loss of $28.2 million on revenues of $216.1 million. It had issued a profit warning in February.

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